Spekelia hybrid 'Mylan' from EBay

dondelduxJune 23, 2013

Hi Everyone,

Once again I couldn't resist this bulb offered on EBay. It was just labeled as Hippeastrum Hybrid Mylan. I believe it is an h. sprekelia formosissima hybrid different from Durga Pradan but visually similar. I asked the seller to try to bend the leaves and not cut them as they stated they would and they put it in a larger box and the bulb came to me with all the long leaves intact. I was very pleased with this accommodating service. The bulb that I ordered did not mention that it had a bud and maybe at the time it didn't but when it arrived it had a bud with about an inch stalk which grew like a weed and it wasn't much more than a week and it was blooming.

I wasn't able to get really good color in my pictures as I had the plant tied up to keep the long leaves from flopping around so I had to take my pictures with a flash which of course blew them out. But, actually the color was more like the auction picture although the flowers were somewhat stressed and not quite as pretty. I'm sure next time they will look exactly like the picture. I am pleased that this hybrid has two flowers unlike h. sprekelia formosissima's one flower.

I selfed one and put papilio on the other which quickly aborted. The selfed pod is growing rapidly so who knows how many seeds will be inside!

Well my seedpod ended in a disaster. The pecicel shiveled a few days ago and the pod bent over and started to look punky so I had to pick it and open it. There were a few larger white and gray seeds in one chamber, the rest were undeveloped.

So... for those of you to whom I promised a few of these seeds if this was sucessful I guess we're all out of luck. I will attempt to soak about 5 of the darkest seeds anyway..maybe better luck next time!